A general manager who stole £240,000 worth of stock to fund the cost of his gambling habit admitted his crime in a text message to his employer.

Craig Williams, aged 48, abused his position at PGK Distribution UK, based at Lenton Lane Industrial Estate in Nottingham, between June 2016 and July 2018.

Nottingham Crown Court heard he had been selling the company’s solar PV products to customers at reduced prices to make sales, before creating false invoices that directed payments into his own bank account.

After delivering the items to customers himself, he returned to work and booked the stock back in – stating on the company’s systems that the customer had cancelled the order.

To hide the missing stock in the warehouse, Williams kept the empty boxes after delivering the items to customers and then placed these empty boxes back on the warehouse shelves so the stock would not be visibly missed.

Suspicions were raised when the firm’s managing director noticed the amount of stock in the Nottingham warehouse was not matching up with what Williams was claiming was in there.

Following weeks of conversations and exchanged emails, Williams eventually sent a text message to the managing director to confess he had been stealing from the business as he had an online gambling addiction.

The next day, 12 July 2018, Williams attended Radford Road Police Station to confess to his crimes.

Williams told officers he believed he had taken approximately £70,000 worth of stock. However an investigation found the true figure was around £240,000.

As a result of him selling that stock at reduced prices, the court heard Williams made approximately £150,000 from the two-year fraud.

Williams was employed as the general manager of PGK Distribution’s UK business and reported to the firm’s managing director, based at the company’s head office in Australia.

In a business impact statement, the managing director said Williams’ actions resulted in the closure of the UK business, resulting in five job losses.

Williams, of Mansfield Lane, Calverton, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for two years, suspended for two years, at a sentencing hearing on Thursday (25 July).

Judge Mark Watson said it was a “sophisticated” scam but that a number of factors meant he was prepared to take an “exceptional and merciful course” and suspend the sentence. These factors included his guilty plea, lengthy delays in bringing the case to court, his previous good character and the lengths he has gone to address his gambling addiction.

As part of the sentence, Williams must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work. He was further ordered to complete an alcohol treatment requirement and made subject of a prohibited activity requirement which means he must not gamble for 12 months.

Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Anna Haynes, who led the investigation, said:

“Such was the regularity of his offending, Williams was unable to say how many times he had fraudulently sold his employer’s stock – only that he spent most of the proceeds on online gambling websites.

“He then tried to cover his tracks by providing inaccurate stock takes and deliberately mismanaging the company’s records.

“Ultimately these concerted efforts failed and he found himself before the courts.

“Since Williams did not have the strength to seek help for his spiralling addiction before it was too late, a successful business had to close and five staff lost their jobs.

“He did express remorse throughout the investigation and I hope this case serves as a reminder to people of how gambling can get out of control and ruin lives.”

For help and support with gambling addiction, visit www.begambleaware.org.